Cable modems are designed to operate over cable television lines. Because the cable used by cable television may provide much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem may provide suitable access to the Internet and the World Wide Web.
To deliver services over a cable network, a cable modem termination system (CMTS) may communicate with cable modems located, for example, in subscriber homes, to create a virtual local area network (VLAN) connection. To access the services, a cable service provider normally requires that the cable modem be properly registered. However, in certain instances, a non-registered cable modem may be provided with access to the service during a limited time period as an inducement to try the service. For instance, a non-registered cable modem may be provided, for example, with 9 days of trial service so that the user may experience the service without charge or commitment. After the trial period, the cable modem may be effectively disabled, thereby preventing all access to the service. In this regard, the cable modem may be disabled, for example, by disabling its Media Access Control (MAC) address, which is a hardware address that may uniquely identify the cable modem.
The disabling of the cable modem in this manner is sometimes referred to as “bricking” the cable modem. A cable modem may be bricked for a variety of reasons in addition to the one discussed above. For example, a modem may be bricked if a user account is determined to be severely past due or if a particular service violation has occurred.
A user whose cable modem has been bricked may not be provided with adequate information as to why to modem has been bricked, or even that the cable modem is in such a bricked state. For example, a user whose cable modem is bricked may not be aware that the cable modem has been bricked and instead, for example, may assume the blocked service is due to a failure of the network or cable modem hardware. Consequently, the user may attempt to contact a customer support representative of the cable service provider, or the cable modem manufacturer, to report the problem. Alternatively, the user may assume that the cable service provider is aware of the failure and decide to wait for the problem to be corrected without contacting the customer support service representative. Consequently, a bricked modem may cause users to experience confusion, frustration, and/or resentment.